iPhone 5 Screens: OEM vs Generic

The iPhone 5 has been around for a while now and that means there are plenty of people out there that have been unlucky enough to crack their screen. With that demand comes a flood of screen copies from third party manufactures. Here we will look at the differences between the Original Equipment Manufacturer's (OEM) screen and a generic copy

Generic copies of screens and other parts are always going to be cheaper than the OEM version becuase they not only use cheaper parts but the companies that produce these copies have much lower overheads as well, by way of less staff and less quality control. These are just some of the factors that come into play when looking at the failure rate of some of these copied parts.

Visual Difference:

Here you can easily see the differences between the OEM and generic parts. You can see if the picture below that there is clear differences in the IC on the generic screen. The parts on the generic screen are smaller and don't line up very neatly.

In the next picture we can see that the circuits in the OEM flex cable are perfectly lined up and spaced appart evenly. The generic flex cable on the other hand looks overly complicated and less organised.

Display Panels:

The OEM iPhone screen composition uses in cell touch panels, which means the touch screen in embedded in the LCD screen. This design makes sure the display is as thin as possible when compared to other phones. Below we can see the different layouts used by the generic copy.

Below we take a look at the GFF touch screen technology used in the generic screens gives performance very similar to the OEM version with the cost of thickness. Cramming these extra layers into a space that was never designed to fit will generally cause more problems down the line for people that went with a generic copy.

Source: REWA Technology

While visually these screens are very similar, the generic copy is thicker and doesn't emit light as well as the OEM screen.

At Fix My Mobile we use screens sourced through OEM channel partners which enables us to provide a industry leading warranty on the repairs we do. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to contact our friendly staff.